The males, in their late teens, had gone on a day hike near Cathedral Peak just after noon Saturday.

While on the hike, an unseasonable cold and rainy storm moved into the area. The thick cloud cover reduced visibility, causing the two hikers to become disorientated while on top of Arlington Peak in the Mission Canyon area.

About 6:30 p.m., with nighttime approaching and the dense foggy and rainy conditions not improving, the pair decided to call 9-1-1. The all-volunteer Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue Team was dispatched to locate and assist the two teens and help them down from the peak.

Four members of SAR’s Mountain Rescue team hiked up from the trailhead at the top of Tunnel Road. Using cell phones and whistles, they were able to zero in on the two hikers who were up on the rocky ridge leading to Arlington Peak.

After locating the teens, the SAR team provided lights and warm clothing to the soaked hikers, who were only wearing shorts and light coats. The SAR team then led the hikers back down to the trailhead, where they were evaluated by SAR EMTs.

A total of eight members of the all-volunteer SAR team participated in Saturday’s incident, which concluded about 10 p.m.

Stephen Allcott, the SAR incident commander, said that while the hikers could have brought additional clothing, they nonetheless did the right thing calling for help when they became disoriented.

“They stayed put, called for assistance and helped provide enough information that our rescue teams could find and help them out,” Allcott said.

He also noted that by following directions, the teens were able to use a program in their iPhone to determine their GPS coordinates. Once known, Allcott was able to plot them into the team’s SAR mapping program to get a good idea of where they were in order to direct the rescue team to them.

In a previous rescue a few months ago, Allcott said that several hikers faced with a similar situation did not stop but continued blindly to try to find the trail only to become lost and stranded on a vertical cliff face, where SBCSAR members had to climb up to them and lower them to safety using ropes.

Welcome to Noozhawk Asks, a new feature in which you ask the questions, you help decide what Noozhawk investigates, and you work with us to find the answers.

Here’s how it works: You share your questions with us in the nearby box. In some cases, we may work with you to find the answers. In others, we may ask you to vote on your top choices to help us narrow the scope. And we’ll be regularly asking you for your feedback on a specific issue or topic.

We also expect to work together with the reader who asked the winning questions to find the answer together. Noozhawk’s objective is to come at questions from a place of curiosity and openness, and we believe a transparent collaboration is the key to achieve it.

The results of our investigation will be published here in this Noozhawk Asks section. Once or twice a month, we plan to do a review of what was asked and answered.

Support Noozhawk Today

You are an important ally in our mission to deliver clear, objective, high-quality professional news reporting for Santa Barbara, Goleta and the rest of Santa Barbara County. Join the Hawks Club today to help keep Noozhawk soaring.

We offer four membership levels: $5 a month, $10 a month, $25 a month or $1 a week. Payments can be made through PayPal below, or click here for information on recurring credit-card payments.

Thank you for your vital support.

Reader Comments

Noozhawk is no longer accepting reader comments on our articles. Click here for the announcement. Readers are instead invited to submit letters to the editor by emailing them to [email protected]. Please provide your full name and community, as well as contact information for verification purposes only.